Latest Contributions by DanaNolan

You can make up any title using the metadata editor. The long names will still show in ArcCatalog browsing (in ArcGIS at least), but there are situations (not sure which) when the alias title will come in instead of the long name. The alias title will remain with the metadata on export. The surest way is to add data from an lyr file in which you have given the layer a better name. ... View more

In the Data Management geoprocessing toolbox, there is a Fields/delete field tool, which is much easier to use and which will give you errors in the Results tab if it cannot run for some reason. ... View more

Display XY works great, but if your data is in a coordinate system, such as UTM or State Plane, that does not just have simple X and Y fields, you will  need to use the Edit button on the Display XY box to choose your zone. And other data (such as MGRS) needing a little more work may require one of my favorite ArcToolbox tools, Convert Coordinate Notation. ... View more

Much easier: in the feature properties Symbology tab, select the class values you want to keep, Move to heading. I usually call this "Show". Then in the Legend, select the layer, on Items tab look for "Only show classes from this heading." Set that to "Show". This is a great way to show only one example of a layer when that is all that is needed. ... View more

Those error messages sound familiar; I have gotten them randomly and just rerunning the tool worked without error. File geodatabases do have a huge overall size limit, but lots of people on this forum export much larger files. I have personally done more than 60K very long records without issue. One thing you may want to try is making sure that background geoprocessing is turned off in your Geoprocessing Otpions unless you really need it, because it can lock files, which interferes with appends and other file GP tools. I doubt it affects exports, but who knows? ... View more

The column labeled "Label" in your example can be edited, but that would have to be done for each value. A Python arcpy.mapping tool might be able to automate this. If you wish to retain the option to use both, you can edit the Description field for each value (right click for each value to choose Edit Description). Then you could choose which field value(s) to display using Legend Properties. A last, ugly, way to do this is with two layers and two legends and turning one of the legends into graphics and placing it on top of the other, but this seems like it would be hard to do in this case. ... View more

Have you looked at map templates? They may not be helpful for existing mxds, but you could give everyone the same setup in their Windows profile for ArcMap options (you may want to do templates for ArcCatalog too). Then each new map would use this. More sophisticated users could change options and save changes to their maps, thus overriding your template options. If you are worried about users changing options or need to change all existing maps, you'll probably have to do some coding. ... View more

It sounds like you have been pointed in the direction of a database designer's tool (such as X-Ray for ArcCatalog). Your DBA probably already has such tools, which might let you work with Excel. Your DBA should also have tools to check that you are complying with the standards. But if you are not responsible for proving you are compliant, then I think your problem is much simpler. Set up a standard schema and import it in each new feature class. then tweak your extra fields in manually or using the Add Field or Alter Field GP tools. Or start from your extra fields and use Add Field to get the 11 fields. ... View more

I suggest doing some testing on this first. The relationship set up automatically for feature-linked annotation is Composite. So you are asking that deleting a feature in one dataset deletes the linked annotation in the other dataset. This might work, but I would expect locks and editing rights on two FDSes to make this process messy. When you reshape features, resize annotation fonts, or make many types of changes, the feature-linked annotation geometry changes. Annotation is complex geometry (polygons and points, I believe). So this may not matter in most cases, but I would think sometimes text could get cut off or become distorted when created in a different projection. This is an interesting dilemma, so let us know what happens. ... View more

Right, that would be the defaults. So then you just type over the defaults in the breaks box. ... View more

To create the 10 classes, try Natural Breaks classification; it will allow you to select your breaks and number of classes. Pick the number of classes first, then hit the Classify button, and type in your Range value breaks in the Breaks box. Here is a link to an older description of how to control graduated colors: https://support.esri.com/en/technical-article/000004541 It should work for 10.2. ... View more

Joseph, Do you have a sense of how often STEM programs for high school and younger students bring GIS into the mix? Same question for Arts magnet schools. (I am thinking ahead to retirement and how and where to volunteer.) ... View more

Another approach to consider: you could create your ideal schema, then when you set up each new file in ArcCatalog, import this schema. You can append or copy data into these files and map data only to fields that you need. I don't believe you can borrow schemas or use the Delete or Alter fields tools on .shp files, so I would do this in a file geodatabase; you can always export to shape files if you need to after the data is set up.  ... View more

This sounds like a recursive relationship with a twist. A simple recursive situation would be an employee and managers, since managers are also employees. So, if you are interested, try looking for how people deal with these. But in my experience, database managers don't support this relationship fully. They are included in data models for documentation purposes but don't make it to schemas. In a database tracking a company's subsidiaries, if you have an owner/parent company its ID may or may not already be in your file and that's probably OK if, for example, you don't want to completely track parentage outside your organization. If it is an internal parent, then you would want to ensure you used a consistent ID (foreign key) for the parent. You can enforce these constraints: after data entry by querying to check if all parent field values are in the table; or during data entry to give the user a warning if the parent is not in the table. The first choice is possible in any database software (you may need a second copy/view of the table because you are essentially joining it to itself), while the second may not be possible without some coding. Your situation has a twist in that the relationships could be redundant and overlapping since if you track the sibling, the parent and other relationships are implied. So you need to think about how to deal with that hierarchy.  ... View more